5.5: Creating a Logic Model for a NEW PROGRAM

Purpose: Planning

Starting at the End

Once you have completed your situational analysis and priority setting (the activities on the left that initiate logic model development), you should start new program development at the end, with the desired program outcomes.

Starting with the end in mind and working backwards opens up possibilities and helps us avoid being confined by existing resources.

Logic model with the Outcomes section highlighted. There is a left-facing arrow at the top of the section.
  • Identify the long-term outcome(s).
  • What is your end goal?
  • What will be different?
  • How will the community, producers, local citizens, the environment, be different as a result of the program?

Agree on a simple statement describing the ultimate, end result that you are hoping to achieve. This end result is the same as your goal. Spending time clarifying your long-term outcome, coming to consensus on what it will be, and making it specific, will save you time later. Review the material in Section 2 on defining outcomes, the outcome chain, and writing outcomes.

Once you have that long-term outcome (end result, goal) identified, then work backwards across the logic model.

A more detailed logic model shows each of the sections: situation, priorities, inputs, outputs, outcomes, assumptions, and external factors. At the bottom of the diagram an arrow shows the usual direction of work going from the situation to the long-term outcomes. At the top of the diagram, a similar arrow points the other way and is labeled "Plan backwards."

Approaches to Creating a LOGIC Model


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